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Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I shall try not to repeat what has been said, because I very much agree with what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, and others have been saying. I want the noble Baroness to tease out and explain to us how the new agency intends to make progress in a way that it could not do through the ordinary criminal courts. I have a great deal of sympathy with the notion that the ordinary criminal standard of proof and the ordinary criminal procedures should have to be applied. If we move away from that, we shall find two particular problems. First, defendants and prosecutors will not really know where they are. Secondly, there is a serious danger that the procedures will fall foul of the European convention and we shall find cases being taken to Strasbourg. We know—I will not say that this is unfortunate, because I think that it is right—that Strasbourg is very clear that, when penalties are imposed that are in effect criminal, they are treated as criminal and criminal standards are required throughout the case. Given the Government’s explanation of the matter so far and the likelihood, following McCann and other authorities, that the courts are likely effectively to impose criminal standards in a large part of this, there might be a very great deal to be said in favour of, as the amendment suggests, writing those criminal standards into the Bill. My question, which is, in a way, the antithesis of the question of the noble Viscount, Lord Bledisloe, is: how does the noble Baroness see this working? Can she flesh out briefly with a few practical examples how the procedures will assist?